The Walking Dead: The Dead Comes By
by Samsebunny
Summary: Valentina is an ordinary girl from Atlanta. But life can change from one day to another, and the world can be different in less than a breath. Survival is not simple when the threat is fresh and it is unsure what it even is.


**This is a fanfiction which was submitted as an entry for a competition :) It is based around the time of the very beginning of the first video game by TellTale :) Enjoy!**

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**3 Days In**

"Psst... Valentina!" Valentina turned around to see who was calling. It was a girl with blonde hair and lipstick.  
"Maria, stop it! We're getting caught again!" She whispered, but it was too late, Ms. Hendriksen had heard them.  
"Valentina, Maria, what is more interesting than me teaching you the core elements of Pride and Prejudice?" Ms. Hendriksen was a small lady with little round glasses on her nose. She was slightly obese and she was of a very boring character. Maria opened her mouth as if to excuse herself when one of the boys sitting by the window yelled:  
"Look! There's police cars all over the roads!"  
Everyone hurried to the windows to see what he was talking about. He was right. The streets were filled with them, more than would usually be gathered in the same place, even for a big city like Atlanta.  
"What's going on?" Several students were asking their friends.  
"It seems like there's a riot going on or something!"

Valentina looked over her shoulder, looking for Ms. Hendriksen, but she had disappeared. She went away from the crowd and went to look out the door. The hallway was completely empty. A shot was to be heard, very distant, and then some more followed. Everyone in the classroom panicked and started screaming. Valentina went back into the classroom and found Maria. She sat down with her phone, reading what was on the screen very intensely.

"What did you want to tell me?" Valentina asked. Maria looked up from the screen and turned it around so she could see. It was an article:

_Heavy Riots in Big Cities_

_Over the last 24 hours it has been experienced that riots have occurred several times in bigger cities. The police force is doing their best to keep down the activities of the riots, but commonly the demonstrators have not reacted to the police, and several officers have been reported to have been bit by the demonstrators. It is still unsure what they are demonstrating about..._

"Everyone, calm down and follow me!" Ms. Hendriksen was back, and in the immediate second she said that, she turned away again. Valentina looked once at Maria and they both nodded in agreement. They took their jackets and bags, and went after her. The rest of their classmates took the same opportunity, and soon the classroom was empty.

"Where are we going?" One of the boys asked. Ms. Hendriksen did not stop until they had reached their destination, which was the playground.

"All right, listen up! Something is going on right now, and no one knows what it is yet, but until it is known, you should go home! The school has been declared an unsafe place to be, and you have therefore been advised to go home, and avoid at all cost the bigger roads!"

Everyone started mumbling, confused about what was going on.  
"I think I know what's happening..." Maria said. Valentina faced her with a grin on her face.  
"Oh really? Let me hear your crazy theories, it better be good!" Maria seemed uneasy on her feet.  
"Well... I saw this blogpost last night, where a person talked about an encounter with these 'demonstrants', and he told that it seemed like the people were sick. They seemed distant, and didn't even care about what he said... His theory is that they are having some mental disorder or something which is in some way contagious..." Maria scratched her head, looking at the ground.

"Well... I think we should just go home and follow the news, I think that's the best way of following this thing." And with that, they turned towards the gates of the school and started walking.

"Oh, did you hear? This man, Lee Everett I think his name was, killed his wife and the senator because they were having an affair!" Maria said. Valentina shook her head, smiling at her friend.  
"Oh Maria, I don't know any other person who knows all the gossip in this country."  
"Oh, it's even more local than that! It's here, from Atlanta!"

The girls stopped. A police car was racing towards the girls without even seeming to try and stop. They started screaming, fearing their immediate death. However, the police car swerved past them and crashed into a a building. They went over there to check if there were any survivors. The car had a small fire going on, and Valentina knew that they had to do something fast.

While they examined the car, more police cars arrived. Valentina went around the car, to the side the closest to the building, but a police officer came over.

"Excuse me ladies, but you have to leave this area. It is not safe for you to be here. Please follow me." He said. Valentina looked at Maria for a brief second, and mimed "Hot!" and they went with him.

As they had gone down further the street, on the other side of the police blockade, they heard the same officer who followed them away from the area yell.

"Stop right there, or we will shoot! Sto..." and the word ended up in a scream. The girls looked back over their shoulder and saw the officer being attacked by a demonstrator. The other officers did not act in any other way than to threaten the demonstrator, but now they understood what the guy in the blogpost meant. He seemed so far away, like he did not even understand English, or was simply just deaf. However, there was something completely wrong about him. The way he acted, it was so animal-like. It was like watching a lion on a gazelle.

Valentina's stream of thoughts was interrupted by a police officer shooting the demonstrator. However, it just seemed to attract more of the demonstrators' attention. Soon, they even came from behind the blockade - where the girls were. Maria started crying, she was afraid. They hurried over to the policemen to seek help, but they were already busy. The police officer who had been helping them, was lying on the ground screaming in agony. His arm was torn apart from the demonstrator and he was soon bleeding out. One of the other officers had been on the phone with 911, but they could not get an ambulance through.

After a few minutes, the demonstrators came closer: so close that they were able to hear how they hissed and groaned. It was first when Maria pointed at one of them who was missing both lower arms that they all realised something was terribly wrong.

"Move towards the building, we'll keep them away!" an officer said and called on two of the others.  
Valentina, Maria, three unknown officers and the officer who had guided them through. Maria went to the staircase right inside and sat down and started crying as she realised how bad the situation was. Hours could possibly pass by before she and Valentina could go home. The officer carrying the injured one put him down and immediately started compressing the wound better than he could have done outside, and he constantly checked for a pulse and if he was taking in air.

"You there, blonde, can you go see if you can find any med-kits in this building? Knock on people's doors, anything. But hurry up." She rose and ran up the stairs. I looked at the one officer by the door. It was a woman. She was holding her gun in her hand, and she did not seem like she would let it go anytime soon.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Valentina asked her. She turned her face a bit, and looked down into the floor.

"No, I am not. But this is our greatest shot at finding safety for now." Valentina nodded, but she had something she wanted to ask. Badly.

"Those are not demonstrators, are they?" The woman turned around. She was clearly latino, and she had a beautiful face. She wore no makeup, and had big, full lips.

"Name's Leona, and no. They are not." She answered, holding out her hand.

"Valentina. But what are they then?"

"I have been asking myself that too." The conversation was interrupted by Maria running down the stairs with a med-kit in her hands. She gave it to the officer, and soon the injured officer was patched up. He did, however, seem to be weakened a lot from the blood loss.

"I found an empty apartment up the stairs, we can stay there for the night if we have to. There's food..." Maria started. The third healthy officer who followed stopped her.

"whoa, did you break into an apartment? That's against the law, I have to arrest you and..."

"David! Stop doing that will you, she tries to help, and we can't do anything now anyway, so would you please give it up?" Leona yelled at him. As she yelled that, the demonstrators started pounding on the door.

"We have to hurry into that apartment, that's our only option now!" She yelled and they all started running up the stairs, Maria leading the way.

When they entered the apartment, it was all dark in there. David tried to turn on the lights, but it seemed like the power was completely off. Leona went to the window, and the yet unnamed officer went to the sofa with the injured, who seemed to have dosed off.

Valentina looked around. David was looking for power, Maria looked for food in the fridge, the unnamed officer took care of the injured, and Leona looked out the window.

Valentina went to Leona, and saw over her shoulder. The three officers were nowhere to be seen, but something was weird about the crowd outside. It had grown a lot bigger than they had expected.

"Leona, do you see the other three officers?" Valentina asked.

"Yes, there..." she said and pointed. Something was weird about the place she pointed. The officers had joined the demonstrators, and was now part of the crowd, and was not attacked anymore. Whatever was going on, it was definitely not good.

"Leona, David, come here. NOW!" the unnamed officer yelled.

They hurried over there, and they whispered all together. Valentina went over to Maria who was binging in the fridge.

"Look! I found these delicious Tiramisu cakes!" She said with her mouth all full.

"... Time of death, 3:46 PM..." Leona said with a low voice.

Valentina turned around and looked at the officers. They sat in silence, praying for the dead one to have a good afterlife.

Some time had passed, and the demonstrators had started to hammer their hands a bit less on the door, and the sun had started to set. They all sat in silence around the apartment eating whatever was left in the fridge, and which did not taste bad after some time without cooling. That made up white bread and nutella, some cereal without milk, which had been found in the cupboards, some more cake, and some cookies.

"I wonder if my parents are okay..." Valentina whispered, being a bit down because of the whole idea with being stuck in an apartment for no one knows how long without knowing if her parents were good or not.

"Why don't you call them? You have a cellphone, don't you?" Leona said. Valentina checked her pockets, and it was there. She took it up, and it had enough battery to last for about a day without running out of power.

She called, but no one answered. She took it easy, and waited a few minutes before calling again.

"Didn't they pick up?" Leona asked, worried on Valentina's behalf. She shook her head.

She dialled again, and it went through.

"Hey dear, where are you? Why aren't you home yet? We were so worried!" Her mother started.

"Mom, I'm fine, really. I'm just stuck in this apartment a few streets away from the school. The street was blocked by demonstrators, but I'm fine. I'm with 3 police officers and Maria, and we have food and beds, and still running water I think. So we're good!"

"That's good to hear. Call me again tomorrow, and be sure not to waste your battery too early! I love you, take care!"

Valentina hung up and put the phone on the table. But as she looked up again, she saw the dead officer move a bit on the sofa. She looked twice, and nothing seemed to have changed.

"I'll go to the bathroom for a minute." Leona left. The two other officers were sleeping, one in the bed, and the other on the other sofa, and Maria was busy looking all over the internet for any news. The officer started moving again. Valentina went over to see what was going on, but as she came over there, something was weird. He started to blink, and he groaned slightly. Valentina backed off and hurried to the bathroom door.

"Leona! Didn't you say the officer was dead?!" She yelled, her voice filled with panic. She ripped the door open.

"What did you just say?" She closed her eyes a bit.

"He just groaned, and blinked his eyes!"

"What the hell have you been smoking?!"

"Nothing, come look!" They both left the bathroom and went to the sofa. He started moving, and his motions became even more vicious when they came closer.

"Richard? Are you alive? But how...?" She said and took his hand. But in that second, he turned his face towards us, his eyes dark and lifeless, motionless. He bit her. Bit her hand. She screamed. Maria ran into the bedroom to get David, and the unnamed officer woke by hearing Leona scream. David came running in.

"What the hell is going on in here?!" he yelled, then saw it, "Holy shit, what the fuck...? Wasn't he dead?!"

The door to the apartment started becoming even more noisy from the demonstrators outside who had heard the screaming. It would not last long. Leona screamed even louder as the undead officer started ripping through her skin and into her stomach, started eating her insides while she was alive. Maria fainted, and Valentina got sick. The door sprang open, and the apartment was soon filled with demonstrators. Valentina saw three of them attack Maria, and started digging their way into her. Valentina ran into the bedroom, but it was too late. Four of them had gone after her, and they were too big a weight to the door she tried to close. She was overwhelmed and fell backwards. They took a tight grip of her, bit both of her arms, as well as digging their way through her insides.


End file.
